Quests: Titan and Ramuh

Last night we fought the last two avatars Itera needed for his Moon Bauble whispers. First Elbo, Grym, and Kiki headed to Mhaura and then Bastok to pick up their tuning forks of lighting and earth, and then we ran through Korroloka Tunnel to meet Lalandra and Itera in Altepa. We headed through Quicksand Caves to the Cloister of Tremors, buffed up, and entered the Protocrystal for the fight.

Make that, everyone but Kiki entered the Protocrystal for the fight. I clicked on the crystal and just got a message about it being a giant crystal or something. Perplexed, I scrolled back and saw that I had indeed talked to the Tarutaru in Bastok for the tuning fork, but apparently I clicked O instead of X and ended up escaping the dialog and didn't actually get the key item for the fight.

So I watched the fight on Grym's screen, and really, I don't think I would have added much. They handily defeated Titan, and I will have to get my Titan's Cudgel some other time.

Elboron gave us a Teleport-Mea and we grabbed chocobos to head to The Boyhada Tree. We waited at the entrance for Neodragon to join us, and ran up to the Cloister of Storms. Our fight with Ramuh was a bit rough, but we all survived. Back to Mea again, and Itera headed to Windurst to get his Moon Bauble from Leepe-Hoppe. We're "ready" for Fenrir, but I'm not sure when we'll actually be able to schedule the fight to fit in with everyone's schedule.

We've got to make the rounds again on the avatars, since not all of us have all of them yet, but really these fights are no longer anything to dread.

Quests: Prime Avatars and the Moon Bauble

On Wednesday evening, we decided it was finally time to get to the Cloister of Tides and fight Levithan Prime. I'd been dreading the trip there, since you have to go through the Temple of Uggalepih and the Den of Rancor, but it ended up being pretty trivial. We don't get aggro in the Temple anymore (at least not where we had to go), and it's a quick trip from the entrance of the Den of Rancor to the Cloister of Tides, as long as you know where you're going. We had Elboron, Itera, Grymalkyn, me, Lalandra's SMN71, and Neodragon filled up the empty spot with his RNG59. I warned him he might die, but said that shouldn't keep him from coming.

The fight with Leviathan was pretty painless. It even turned out to be lightning day, the best day for fighting Leviathan. Lalandra's Ramuh was probably quite happy with that. Neodragon did indeed die, being the sacrifice Leviathan demanded for our victory. He even ran away to try to avoid the two hour, but didn't get far enough away. I actually managed to hold hate through the fight (PLD/RDM), thanks mostly to Grymalkyn. After the fight, I raised Neodragon, and Elboron teleported us to Holla so we could head through Ranguemont Pass and go fight Shiva in the Cloister of Frost in Fei'Yin.

Neodragon stopped in San d'Oria to try to pick up the Tuning Fork of Ice, but he didn't have enough fame, so the five of us went on without him. Shiva ended up putting us to sleep several times, and since Itera used Hundred Fists quite early in the fight, he pretty much did all the tanking for Shiva. Her two hour came and went, and Elboron survived! I think this is the first time Shiva didn't kill Elboron. Perhaps she figures he's suffered enough at her hands.

With all six whispers now in hand, Grym, Elbo and I hurried back to Windurst Waters after the fight to get our Moon Baubles from Leepe-Hoppe. It's taken us forever to finally manage to get all our whispers, which is kind of silly when the fights are relatively easy for us to do now. I guess it's just a matter of getting the right people all in the same place at the same time. Tonight we'll try to get Titan and Ramuh for Itera, and he'll have his Moon Bauble too. Then it will be time to figure out how a PLD, THF, BRD, MNK, WHM, and SMN should best fight Fenrir!

Quests: Trial by Fire/Trial by Wind

On Thursday evening, Kiki grabbed Grym, Elbo, and Itera to go fight Ifrit finally. We recruited Demin's MNK 71 to join us, and headed for Ifrit's Cauldron. I forgot to bring an ice cluster for the flame spout, and we managed to aggro the lava bomb there, which self-destructed, nearly killing both Demin and Itera - they had the most HP, but they took the most damage as well. Itera got aggro'd and killed while we were sneaking our way to the Cloister of Flames, and Grym and I managed to get back and find him and raise him. I'm starting to get a feel for how the place is put together, but I'd really like an in-game map.

The fight with Ifrit went fairly well, with my PLD/RDM being the main healer. Elboron used Soul Voice and fire carol on us just before Ifrit's two hour, but Grym still took 1300 damage, and fell dead. It's like the avatars roll the dice and pick one person to die each time. This was our first time fighting Ifrit, but we're keeping the whispers for our Moon Bauble for Fenrir now. As soon as we get our Moon Baubles we can go back for the avatar.

Next we decided to get our Whisper of Wind from Garuda, and Lalandra (SMN70) joined us. On her way to the Cloister of Gales, she got killed, and Elboron and I ran out to raise her. However, she was in the middle of a herd of raptors and a gang of goblins, so Demin, Grym, and Itera came to help kill everything so we could raise Lalandra. Demin had to log out, so we did the fight without him. It went better than Ifrit - she thought Kiki should die, but I was still left with 500 HP after her two hour, so we foiled her. Garuda's so annoying because she keeps healing herself.

Elbo, Grym, and Kiki now have 4 of the six whispers, while Itera's missing 4 of them. We need to fight Shiva and Leviathan first, then the three of us can get our moon baubles and then get the whispers from Titan and Ramuh for Itera, and we'll be ready to see how we do against the big puppy.

Beastmasters: Leveling 50 -> 53

We spent most of our in-game time this weekend leveling our BSTs. We started out at 50, with less than 2K to-next-level, and decided to try Sacrarium, hoping we'd maybe get keys for our maps. It didn't go so well, so we grabbed our cookbook pages for Jonette, and finished up the level fighting DCs and EPs in Misareaux Coast.

From Tavnazia, we headed to Fei'Yin, and had a really good time pitting bats against the Droma, Talos, and tough bats. The Talos are dolls, with a nasty Meltdown move, so we let our pets fights those with us standing a good distance away. Since our pets were getting hit for 1k-3.5k damage on the Meltdowns, that was a wise decision on our part. Everything else we'd fight alongside our pets, and the exp piled up.

This was our first time leveling with our Gaudy Harnesses and our full sets of Crow gear. The Gaudy Harnesses are a great way to ensure you always have some MP, since it provides a refresh effect whenever you fall below 49 MP. And the Crow gear proved to be very good at keeping hate off of us and on our pets. We'll typically start out our fights in attack gear, but if we pull hate, we swap in the Crow gear, swapping it back out again when we use Leave and finish off the mob.

We had a couple of "incidents" that required us to run up from the basement and out of the zone. Fortunately this is possible in Fei'Yin since most of the mobs are magic casters and will stop to cast things on you as you're running away. The first time we had to zone was when we decided we'd see how bats did versus Shadows. The answer was "terribly", and we decided to cut and run. The second incident was when Grym was a bit too close to a Droma when casting sneak. We had quite the train on us that time, but again safely made it out to Beaucidine Glacier.

As we were sitting outside Fei'Yin, recovering our HP and MP, a character named Asphodel said "Celebrities!", causing us to spin our cameras around to see the famous people. We saw only Asphodel, a Mithra Dragoon, and some guy who seemed to have just zoned with us as well, but appeared to be a friend of hers. Then she said something about liking my blog, so we knew she'd meant us. I didn't know what to say, so I /blush'd at her, and we ran back into Fei'Yin to get back to getting to 52 so we could go home and try on our Beast Gaiters.

Odd to think people actually read my endless babble. :-)

Sunday, our fuzzy winter boots on our feet, we decided to try a few different places. First we headed to Western Altepa Desert, but the DC Beetles made pathetic pets against the VT Anticans, and it was pretty disappointing. We headed into Quicksand Caves near the Cloister of Tremors, but there weren't enough spiders and worms to keep us busy. Next we tried Crawlers Nest, and we settled into a decent groove there, using hornflies and blazer beetles as pets to fight hornflies, blazer beetles and mushushu. There was a group fighting exorays for the mold drop for G1, so we left those alone. The exp was a bit disappointing compared to Fei'Yin, but we figured that would have dropped off at 52 anyway, so we stayed put.

We logged for a few hours to run errands, and the place was emptier when we came back, so we added exorays into the pet/prey mix. When we were probably one kill away from hitting 53, I managed to aggro two tough exorays after grabbing one even exoray as a pet. This normally wouldn't be a problem, as Grym already had her pet, but I think I hit my "leave" macro instead of my "fight" macro, and ended up dead. Grym let herself die as well, and we HP'd to Windurst, 1K away from 53.

Determined to get our level, we set out for Fei'Yin, and quickly got the exp we needed on 6 Droma, 2 Talos, and a handful of bats. We wondered why on earth we'd slogged our way through the level in Crawlers Nest when we could have gone back to Fei'Yin and gotten it much faster. Then again, we would have done a lot of waiting for respawns, and maybe it wouldn't have been so good for the full level. Plus it's fun to try different areas, just for some variety.

I'm not sure where we'll head next, but that's part of the fun as well.

Besieged: Still Undefeated

Somehow, Lakshmi has continued to repel the enemy forces attacking Al Zahbi. We are now (9/25) 283-0. There is only 1 other server still undefeated: Siren. (See the Besieged Server Records at FFXIclopedia.)

We participate in Besieged whenever we can, and still hate all the lag, but do enjoy defending the Astral Candescence. Some of the fights have been awfully close calls, with all of the generals being defeated, and the Hall of Binding breeched, but somehow we still manage to win. More than once we've been shocked when they end up retreating. After the last big maintenance on August 21st, we had the Undead, then the Mamools, then the Trolls, and finally the Trolls again, all back to back. Fortunately there were enough people already online and willing to defend the city, and we were able to keep our winning streak going.

I figure we'll lose after the next maintenance update, since they're going to be making Besieged harder, but I'd really like to see Siren lose first. :-)

It seems there are a lot of people who don't like Besieged, and avoid it whenever possible. I don't think they understand what's at stake if we lose the Astral Candescence to the Beastmen. They're all quick to complain if the warp Taru gets kidnapped. Just think how they'll feel when they get no exp bonuses fighting in Sanction areas, and can't use the Runic Portals to get to their favorite Merit camps!

Missions: Ancient Flames Beckon (Snoll Tzar, CoP 5-3U3)

Two weeks ago, we made our first attempt on the Snoll Tzar, and for a variety of reasons, we ended up losing. Let's just say I can't get the phrase "Leeeeroooy Jennnnkinnssss!" out of my head. However, it was a promising failure, and I knew we'd do better next time.



So we farmed up the cluster cores we needed to replace the salts we'd used, and Friday night we headed back to Bearclaw Pinnacle ready to show the big snowball we meant business. We made the quick side trip to get our Shu'Meyo Salts, and made it safely past the scary monsters on the way to the BC.

For this level 60 cap fight, we had this line-up:

Wendell WHM/SMN
Elboron BRD/WHM
Grymalkyn THF/RNG
Itera MNK/SAM
Splinte WAR/SAM
Tsakiki PLD/WAR

All six of us had an Icarus Wing, and Wendell was wielding an Arcana Breaker, which has an additional effect of Defense Down on Arcana (and the snoll is arcana). We had Carbonara for its +HP and +Attack and Store. We entered the battlefield, and the two /SAMs started meditating to build TP. We planned to let them get a full 300% TP, and then we'd have Itera start boosting, and then we'd get our final buffs (souled voiced double minuet from Elboron, Haste for Itera and Splinte from Wendell). Just as they reached the end of their meditating and we all ate our food and used our Icarus Wings, Itera disconnected.

Fortunately, he got back quickly (antivirus issues), but he had lost all of his TP we'd waited for him to build up. We only had about 12 minutes left, so we decided he could meditate to 100% tp, and then we'd go for it. He got his TP, we moved closer to the arena, with Itera boosting. On his 6th boost, Elboron and Wendell did their things, and we all ran in together, and unleashed our fury onto the Snoll Tzar.

It was over so fast my head was spinning. From my point of view, I got behind the Snoll as Itera got hate at first (the plan had been for him to use a fully boosted Chi Blast, but that didn't work for some reason), Grym used SATA+Dancing Edge on me, I used my TP on a Vorpal Blade and watched for the messages from Wendell's Salt. I think I cast a Cure on Elboron and started using my salt (a few seconds late, I actually saw the "shakes the salt off" message from Wendell's), and before my salt got used, the fight was over.

I think both Splinte and Itera were able to get in 3 weaponskills betweeen their initial meditate, an Icarus Wing, and another meditate with their natural TP gain, and they did massive amounts of damage. They also used their two hours: Mighty Strikes and Hundred Fists. Wendell opened with Dia II, did a weaponskill (getting the defense down effect from the club), and used his salt. Elboron ran in with soul voice still active and enfeebled the snoll, then used his wing and got in a decent fast blade to help with the damage. Grym also landed an Acid Bolt for more defense down, but the fight was too short for her to get in a second SATA, even having had preloaded it before the fight.

It was so nice to see it dead so fast, and with a melee-only party. The Snoll Tzar nearly got a few of us after we left the battlefield though. We'd been hit with Cold Wave, an AOE Frost with a nasty -31HP/tick. Fortunately we still had plenty of MP and kept everyone alive. Wendell got rid of the effect with a Divine Seal-Erase, and we headed off to Bastok to talk to Cid. Some of us still need to sneak into the Level 60 capped Pso'Xja Tower for a cutscene, and we'll finally be done with this seemingly never-ending Mission 5-3.

Now I can start stressing out over the Omega/Ultima fight.

New titles: True Companion of Louverance, Ulmia's Soulmate

General: SMN AF3 and Asuran Fists WSNM

On Saturday, Yobun gathered together a bunch of us to help out with his Summoner AF3 fights. We had Yobun BLM75/RDM37, Midget NIN75/WAR37, Vawn PLD74/WAR37, Latch MNK71/WAR35, Daden WAR75/NIN37, Itera MNK75/NIN27, Grym THF75/WHM37, and Kiki PLD75/RDM37. First we headed to the Cloister of Storms in the Boyhada Tree to fight two weapons, the Lightning Gremlin and the Thunder Gremlin. We had them dead before we knew it, and then headed to the Cloister of Gales off of Cape Terrigan. This fight is with a Manticore, and we started fighting before Yobun was even out of the cutscene, thinking it'd be as easy as the weapons had been. This fight didn't go quite so smoothly, and Vawn ended up dead. We did manage to set the record for the fight, which was some consolation. If I'd looked it up from when we did the same fights for Diasuke in October last year, I might have remembered this was actually a pretty tough fight. Both Yobun and Midget ended up dead that time we did it.

I raised Vawn and we headed off to Bostaunieux Oubliette for the Asuran Fists WSNM for Latch. Izan was waiting for us in the room for the fight, dead under the water, but fortunately we got to him before his timer expired. I raised him, Latch popped the skeleton, and we killed it with no more deaths.

Beastmasters: Beadeaux Coffers (Beast Jackcoat)

Grym and Kiki spent a couple of hours on Saturday (9/10) farming coffer keys in Beadeaux with our level 75 jobs, but didn't have any luck with the keys. There was no one in the area we were farming, and we cycled through the 7 quadavs there a little bit faster than they'd respawn. We called Balu-Falu and Wagwei to join us, so they got a bit of exp. Balu-Falu hit 55, which was nice. They were wearing such awful outfits. Some day we'll have to work on getting them something better to wear. They were both set on Stalwart Shield from when we did the Mirror Images quest a week ago, and it was interesting to see that Balu-Falu would always provoke when my stoneskin wore off. Not that it did him any good in getting hate off me, but he really did try hard to tank. I know how he feels. :p

I didn't like fighting the BLM quadavs, but when I started trying to silence them (I was PLD/RDM), the fights did go a bit more smoothly. When we found out we'd got 200k worth of scrolls off of them, I liked them a bit better (Flood and 2x Waterga II). We headed back the following Saturday, and it ended up taking us over 7 hours to get the two keys we needed. We called our NPCs 5 times, using our signal pearls and all 4 charges on our tactic pearls. We'd switched them over to Soothing Healers, and that worked out pretty well. I lost Balu-Falu after one particularly rough fight with one of the BLM quadavs - he'd been poisoned and died before I could cure him. Both Balu-Falu and Wagwei hit level 56. Balu-Falu's currently sporting Seer's gear, while Wagwei made it to a Gambison.

There were a couple odd parties that camed and tried to camp on top of us, but it wasn't very worthwhile for them, as we were killing the quadavs as fast as they spawned. The first seemed to be a group of Level 60s, apparently trying to exp there. It might actually be a good exp camp for that level, if no one else is around. They gave up and moved elsewhere after only managing two Quadavs in 20 minutes. The second was a group of RMTs, probably trying to get testimonies for the BLMs in the crew. From the way they moved around, it was probably one guy running the entire party. He really didn't do a very good job. Any time he did manage to get a Quadav, at least one of his crew ended up dead. He was persistant though, even though he barely got any quadavs.

After hours with only one key, Yobun came out to help us, and then Vawn/Latch as well. The key finally dropped from what seemed like the first Quadav we killed after Vawn and Latch arrived in Beadeaux and joined the party. I waved goodbye to the RMT and we teleported out.

Grym and I headed back on Tuesday night, first with Kiki as BST50/RDM25 and Grym and THF75/WHM37. We made our way back to the coffer area, and found the Treasure Coffer in the last possible spot. We rested for HP and MP, since we'd been cursed by the Afflictors, cast Sneak, and went into the room with the coffer. Grym started casting Teleport-Mea, and before the spell finished, I opened the coffer and got my Beast Jackcoat.

We headed back to Windurst, and Grym switched to BST50/WHM25, and Kiki to PLD75/RDM37, and Elboron joined us as BRD75/WHM37. We got back to Beadeaux about the time we expected the coffer to respawn, but it wasn't in any of the spots. I headed back to the first coffer area to wait there, but then Elbo spotted it in the same room my coffer had been in. Elboron started casting Teleport-Mea, Grymalkyn opened her coffer, and I stood there waiting to Flash any aggro'ing Quadavs. I didn't feel too useful.

Now we just have our Beast Helms left to get. Those are from a Garliage Citadel coffer, and we should be exp'ing on the key droppers there before we're level 56 (the level of the helm) anyway, so I think we'll actually do that one as BSTs.

Leveling: Ninja Blues above Hidden Valley (Level 27 -> 29)

For this week's static, we thought we'd try the Makara and Sahagins at the Yuhtunga zone to Sea Serpent Grotto. However, another party had the same idea, so we headed for the cliff overlooking the Hidden Valley and fought Goblin Furriers instead. The Furriers are so much squishier than the Smithies, and they went down very fast. The three BLUs were able to use Head Butt to stun a significant number of the Goblins' Bomb Tosses, and the exp piled up pretty fast.

The only bad spot of the evening was when a water elemental started floating around near us. Wendell and I thought we were far enough away from it to safely use magic, but apparently we weren't, and Wendell got killed. He home-pointed and got back to us as fast as he could. One of the coolest things of the night was that we had two quadruple levelings. With Grym, Kiki, Itera, and Elboron all getting themselves just to 27 since our last party, all four of us leveled on the same kills. We all got to 29 before calling it a night, having exp'd for about 2 hours, including waiting for Wendell to get back to us.

Quests: Bombs Away!

For many of the CoP Missions there are special items you can obtain that help to defeat the bosses in the fights, and the Snoll Tzar fight is no exception. The item for this fight is a Shu'Meyo Salt, and is obtained through the quest "Bombs Away!". You need to trade two Cluster Cores to an NPC Orc in Uleguerand Range and in return you get one rare/exclusive Shu'Meyo Salt. Over the past year or so, our CoP static had managed to collect 16 cluster cores, and had hung on to them for this mission. We used 12 of the cores getting a salt for each of us before our first failed attempt at the Snoll Tzar, and since we'd only used 4 of the salts, we needed to farm "just" 4 more cores before we could try the mission again.

You can get cluster cores from clusters, which only spawn in fog weather in Lufaise Meadows and Misareaux Coast, or if you've got a full party, you can try to fight the IT ones that are in Riverne Site A01 and B01, but they can be pretty deadly. This is where most of our original collection had come from - on linkshell expeditions into Riverne Site A01, usually when we were fighting the Carmine Dobsonflies. You can also steal cores from them, meaning steal/hide is an option in Riverne Site B01, since hide works on clusters. The cores can't be sold on the auction house, but once in awhile you can find them in peoples' bazaars.

After spending 7 hours over 3 evenings in Lufaise Meadows and Misareaux Coast, getting fog weather only once and only managing to fight one cluster in the one brief fog window we saw, Grym and Kiki left Elboron in Misareaux to continue to wait for fog weather, and the two of us headed to Riverne Site B01. Grym was THF50/WHM25, and Kiki was BST50/RDM25 for widescan. We snuck around the islands, looking for Nitro Clusters, and found a tiny island that had two Clusters on it, and nothing else. Grym snuck up behind it, successfully stole a core from it, and used hide to lose aggro. Hurray! Maybe it wasn't going to be so bad. I kept my target on the one she hadn't stolen from (you can only successfully steal once from a given mob - after that you need to kill it and have a new one spawn), and after 5 minutes, she tried the same on the second cluster. The steal attempt failed, and then another duo, in their PJs, showed up on the island and managed to get aggro'd by both of the clusters. We ran away to the next island, in search of more Nitro Clusters.

We found a big clump of clusters mixed in with a group of Pyrodrakes on the biggest island, and Grym tried stealing from them a couple of times, but I was uncomfortable with our location, and spotted two Nitro Clusters on widescan that were all by themselves, so we headed over to them. They turned out to be in the cave with the ??? for the Unstable Cluster that people spawn to get a really nice level 50 Great Katana, and it was indeed a safe spot for us to try over and over and over again to get the last two Cluster Cores we needed. After 11 failed attempts, Grym finally got another core, and from that point on, it was my job to make sure we knew which Nitro Cluster was the one that still hadn't been stolen from, to keep her from trying to steal from the one she'd already stolen from. She finally got the last core we needed, with a total of 16 attempts for the 3 cores. Meanwhile, Elboron didn't see any fog weather in Misareaux Coast.

In the end, it took us 9 hours to get 4 cores. What a pain in the neck. We better beat that Snoll Tzar this time. I don't want to have to do that again.

Notorious Monsters: Colorful Leshy

We've been trying to farm Cluster Cores to get Shu'Meyo Salts for our next round with the Snoll Tsar, and at the end of an evening with no fog weather in Lufaise Meadows or Misareaux Coast, Grym spotted Colorful Leshy on wide scan. She ran to see if anyone was fighting it, and since no one was, claimed it as Elboron and I ran to join.

We were set up for core farming, so Grym was THF75/RNG31 and I was PLD75/THF25, while Elboron was BRD75/WHM37. Grym didn't have any bolts with her either, and took one pretty big hit before I caught up to her, but the fight itself ended up being pretty easy, as it should be for 3 level 75s beating up a level 58 Treant. It even missed me with all its Pinecone Bombs.

We were rewarded for our effort with a Mahogany Log, and the Harvest Earring. It's a nice earring, with +1 DEX, +1 AGI, and +1 MND, but I was a bit surprised that it sells for 300K. It's nice, but is it really worth that much? There were 5 up on the Jeuno AH, so I'll hang on to it for a few days before listing it.

Leveling: Ninja Blues in Yuhtunga Jungle (25 -> 26/27)

On Sunday evening, the Ninja Blues headed to Yuhtunga Jungle to beat up on the mandragoras, all of us level 25. Dream Flower was as annoying as ever, but the little mandies were quite soft and went down pretty easily. We had a bit more trouble with the Goblin Smithies, especially when we weren't able to stun them out of Bomb Tosses. Grym and Kiki both ended up getting killed trying to keep us all alive with Healing Breeze, and Charcole used his two hour to blow up the Goblin. Grym and I had set our homepoints in Kazham, so we homepointed and Grym switched to WHM to raise Charcole. Charcole decided to keep pulling even though he was still weakened, pulling the next mandy before Grym got back out town after changing back to BLU. Grym was able to learn Bomb Toss, but Kiki didn't. Wendell and Charcole both got to level 27, and the rest of us are fairly close.

Goblins are so hard to fight without Barfira. I'm not sure what we should fight next week. Maybe Yhoator Mandies, but Goblins are a problem there as well.

Grym and Kiki went out to Passhow Marshlands Monday night to see if Kiki could learn Bomb Toss, which she did on the second goblin we fought. We headed to Rolanberry Fields to kill bees and bats to make up our exp loss, and stopped as soon as we hit level 27. We had been killing the easy preys and decent challenges so fast that we decided to try the Tough crawlers. They went down almost as fast, which helped the exp add up a bit quicker. We rested for MP between crawlers, just to be safe, but we never even used half our MP fighting them. I just don't see that we've had any other job combination (aside from BST) where we could so easily duo Toughs at level 26.

Assault: Lamia No. 13

Late Saturday evening, after one of our fights with the Carmine Dobsonflies, Yobun, Izan, Grym, and I decided to try Lamia No. 13 a couple of times. We went as BRD/WHM, DRG/RDM, PLD/RDM, and THF/RNG. It was a bit iffy at times and took us nearly the full time to complete, but we won and decided to go again.

Yobun switched to BLM/RDM for gravity and the BLM DoT spells, and things went much smoother at first. Then it somehow all went wrong. She did too many Belly Dances recharming the fomor, and it was hard to dispell them when we were getting hit by the Fomor, interrupting our spells. Bio III and Poison were fast depleting our resources, and we started getting killed. We sadly ended up with a total wipe, and only 100 points for the failure. It was interesting that the mission didn't end like other BCs, where you get kicked out after 3 minutes if everyone's dead. We had to lie there for over 15 minutes until the 30 minute time limit was reached.

Chocobos: Yes, of Course We're Raising Chicks

Grymalkyn and Kiki both did the quest Chocobo on the Loose and got a chocobo egg from Brutus as their reward. We entrusted our eggs to the care of the Vana'diel Chocobo Society trainer in Windurst, and several days later, our chicks hatched. We both got females, and ended up naming them RagingTerror and FuryWing. They've been doing relatively well, and should soon reach adolescence (probably tomorrow). We visit them daily, take them for walks if they're not asleep, and have been feeding them a variety of food. Quincy and Qimirpik have been planting wildgrass seeds and have gotten a bunch of different greens and grasses. Qiara had made some vegetable pastes for our chicks, but we've mostly been feeding them the whole grasses. They seem especially fond of Azouph Greens.

One day when I checked in on FuryWing, she had a "sensitive" personality, saying she'd be good around people. However, she was back to having no personality the next day, and has remained that way ever since.

Overall, I'm finding the process of raising a chocobo to be a bit tedious, since we have to visit it in Windurst every day, and we already had inventory issues, which are just made worse by keeping a lot of chocobo feed around. It's also a bit dull, since not much happens day to day, and once you've seen the cutscenes for "walking in town" and meeting the trainer while on a "short walk", there's really not a lot going on. They will reach adolescence in a day or two, and that will add some more care options, but I don't see that I'd want to turn into a full-time Chocobo breeder, in search of the perfect chick.

Beastmasters: A New Dawn (AF pants)

On Saturday, Grym and I picked up the AF3 quest for our Beast Trousers, A New Dawn. (Note, if you're having trouble getting Dietmund to give you the quest, make sure your main job is BST at the time - otherwise he just talks about some trouble that needs a Beastmaster to resolve. Silly us.) So Dietmund told us there were some strange things happening in the Eldieme Necropolis. We talked to Osker about it as well, and he made us both a Tamer's Whistle to take with us.

Later, I asked the BST75 duo in the LS, Lucrezia and Ranzz, how the fight went for them. They had done the fight as THF75 and BRD75, and said it wasn't too horrible, and offered to help us. We met them a bit later in the Eldieme Necropolis (the part you need to go through Beaucidine Glacier to get to). We were THF75/NIN37, BRD75/WHM37, THF75/NIN37, and PLD75/WAR37.

We decided to try sneak-pulling, and hopefully only have to fight the hound. Ranzz cast Sneak on Grymalkyn, who headed into touch the Sarcophagus to spawn the hound and his two tigers. Before he examined the Sarcophagus, he started casting Tonko, so that he'd be invisible before the tigers spawned. Sneak kept the hound from knowing he was there, and Invisible kept the tigers from seeing him. I used Flash to pull the Hound from the door, and sure enough, our sneaky tricks worked.

We fought the hound and brought him down relatively quickly, thanks to all the damage from the two THFs. Ranzz thought I might have some trouble tanking him, and I did take some big hits, but nothing a Cure IV couldn't handle. The tigers disappeared after we killed the hound, and Grym and I re-examined the Sarcophagus, and had a cutscene, reuniting the Galka BST from Fei'Yin with his Opo-opo from Castle Oztroja. In thanks, he gave us our Beast Trousers.

We headed back to Windurst, and I dressed my Mithra Mannequin up in the three pieces of BST AF I have so far. In the screenshot, she's also wearing my Darksteel Cuirass, which actually seems to go quite nicely with it (though BST can't equip it), and my DRK AF scythe. It would have been nice to do this "right", charming the two tigers and using them to kill the hound, but it's also nice to have our AF on hand already. A big thank you to Luc and Ranzz for their help!

Now we have to get keys for coffers in Garliage Citadel and Beadeaux, and then the coffers themselves, and the sets will be complete.

New title: Paragon of Beastmaster Excellence

Beastmasters: Borghertz's Wild Hands (AF gloves)

After we got our Beast Gaiters from Brutus, we started the quest for our next piece of AF, our Beast Gauntlets. We talked to Guslam in Upper Jeuno to activate Borghertz's Wild Hands, then headed to Crawlers Nest to search for keys and coffers. Since we were doing this as our PLD75 and THF75, Grymalkyn also brought some thief's tools to try to pop her own coffers. We figured we'd be able to handle a mimic should she fail and get one, and that would be an easy way to get a key, since they're a guaranteed drop off the mimics. We fought the Knight Crawlers and Crawler Hunters near the lizard rooms we'd be exp'ing in a few days earlier, and would circle around to the coffer spawn points in that area every 15 minutes.

After about half an hour with no key, but plenty of Greatsword skillups for Kiki, Grymalkyn spotted a coffer. She tried to open it, but failed, and a mimic spawned. We did indeed have little trouble with it, and sure enough, a key dropped. Kiki took the key, since we figured Grym could try popping the next coffer. We went in search of the coffer respawn, and found it down in the Helm Beetle area. Grym used her tools on this coffer as well, and on the third attempt, she got her old gauntlets. It was time for us to run off to kill the Carmine Dobsonflies, so we left Kiki's coffer search until later.

Kiki headed back to Crawlers Nest later that night, and quickly found her coffer, in the big room where Grym had got the mimic earlier. Old gauntlets in hand, she ran back to Jeuno to put in her order with Borghertz's ghost. As always, he needed some flames from Dark Spark. This Saturday, we headed off to Castle Zvahl Baileys, as PLD75/RDM37 and THF75/NIN37, and fought Dark Spark. We got our flames, and ran back to Jeuno to get the ghost of Borghertz to fix our old gauntlet. It only took him a moment, and we had our new Beast Gloves in hand. 2 pieces of BST AF down, 3 to go.

Notorious Monsters: The Days of the Carmine Dobsonflies

It's been a long time since ClanBEB had done a run on the Carmine Dobsonflies, but now that Yobun has his Summoner over 40, he wanted to see if we could get more people Voyager Sallets, as well as Jaegar Rings for the people who didn't/couldn't go when we kept at them last year. Since the sallet is an annoyingly rare drop, this meant we kept visiting the flies every day for nine days. They're on a 21-24 hour respawn, so it was easy for us to know roughly when they'd be up, and fortunately we didn't get too much competition for them throughout the week.

A week ago Saturday, we headed out to Cape Riverne with Kiki BST40/NIN20, Grym BST 40/NIN20, Yobun SMN40/WHM20, Diasuke SMN40/WHM20, Lalandra SMN40/WHM20, Ryrra MNK40/WAR20, and Anastasia BLM40/RDM20. While we were gathering together, Grym and I ran up ahead to use Riverne Vultures as pets to kill a few Firedrakes to get a couple of Giant Scales (we only needed one, but Yobun wanted one to use later). We made our way to the island, Grym and I dragging our Vulture pets all the way from the start, releasing and recharming to keep them with us. The flies were up, Grym and I used our pets to fight/heel to gather them together at the portal (so we could fight without bothering with the clusters), and the SMNs all used Astral Flow and demolished the flies. We ended up with two rings (Ryrra and Lalandra were the only ones who needed them), and a Voyager Sallet. I made a decisive lot of 980, and finally got my sallet. Yay! I really wanted that for my DRK41!

Sunday, we headed back later than the respawn time, since everyone was bit busy with real life, and we hoped we hadn't missed them. Ryrra didn't join us this time, but we had Elboron as WHM40/BLM20, and another WHM friend of Yobun's who needed a ring, but didn't catch up to us in time, so s/he missed out on the fight. We didn't have as good a selection for pets this time, but Grym and I farmed the giant scale we needed, and we all headed to the flies' island, where they were all waiting for us. The fight didn't go quit as smoothly this time, and Anastasia ended up getting killed by the flies. We managed to kill them all, and 3 or 4 rings dropped, but since only one of the party needed one, the others were lost forever. There wasn't even anyone else in the zone to offer it to. People who've never managed to get their own Jaegar Rings probably hate hearing about them being lost. Then again, the people who've never managed to get their own probably haven't gone to fight the flies over and over again.

Monday, we lost Diasuke and Anastasia, but recruited Genochi's SMN37 and Daden's WAR40/THF20. We got to the zone at the start of the respawn window, but didn't have everyone there and to the island for another 90 minutes. We were a bit concerned about other groups traipsing through the zone, but none of them were looking for the flies. Or maybe they were looking - the flies weren't up at the time, though we didn't know it, since wide-scan doesn't see that far. Grym and I farmed the scale again - those vultures really tear up the drakes, but the traps are horrible for them. We both had to settle for DC Vultures, which we dragged with us to the flies' island. The flies weren't there when we arrived, so we stood there waiting, releasing and recharming our vultures every 5 minutes to keep them from coming uncharmed and attacking us. I ended up losing my vulture when I mis-charmed it, tamed it, and it despawned 1 second before my timer was back on charm. I should have left it hitting me instead of taming it. The flapping of the vultures' wings got to be really annoying. I'm sure everyone there must have turned down their game volume to avoid it. The repop windows came and went, and then the last window opened, and there they were. Grym two-houred her Vulture, and I called a Lizard Familiar and used my two-hour, and we gathered up the flies, and the Summoners let them have it. One or two of the flies weren't close enough at first, so they had a good bit of life left, but we killed them all. We got a sallet, but only one ring. Lalandra got the sallet, and Daden got the ring (Genochi had one of the worse lots I've seen: 6).

Tuesday, we had Diasuke, Yobun(Ryrra), Elboron, Grymalkyn, Kiki, Anastasia, and Izan (DRG/WAR). There was another group headed in, but for some reason, they ended up losing people and didn't kill any of the flies. A THF/NIN was waiting there, and he joined in with us, also hoping for a Sallet. With only 2 SMNs, we ended up wiping, but not before we had killed 6 of the 10 flies. A PLD friend of the THF had logged there, and logged back in to help us kill the 4 remaining flies. We ended up getting 4 rings (lost 2 and the others went to the THF and the PLD), and one sallet, which auto-dropped to Elboron before everyone was raised.

Wednesday, we had a small group heading off to see the flies. There was no one in Riverne - Site #A01 when I logged on, but the window had started about 90 minutes earlier, so it was impossible to say whether the other group had gone in and grabbed them earlier. We had two SMNs - Yobun(Ryrra) and Lalandra, two BSTs - Grym and Kiki, and one WHM - Elboron. We figured we'd give it a shot anyway, and headed in. We got our scale and got to the island, and sure enough, they were all there. We only managed to kill one before wiping. It didn't even drop a Dobson Bandanna, which it supposedly a 100% drop. I've decided from several different experiences that certain rare/ex 100% drops won't drop if everyone in the party has them already. Since we'd all used our two hours, we decided to wait for two hours and see if we could get more help. Ryrra logged in as herself, hoping Yobun would be back from class before we were ready to go again, and we talked Daden and Anastasia into joining us as well, so we added a MNK/WAR, NIN/WAR, and BLM/WHM to the mix. We killed the 9 remaining flies, but didn't get a single drop. There was a JP SMN in his PJs who showed up 20 minutes before we finished the fight, so we figured he'd have a team there on Thursday when the window opened.

Thursday night, we were back to a three SMN group - Yobun(Ryrra), Diasuke, and Lalandra. We also had Elboron WHM/BLM, Ryrra MNK/WAR, and Anastasia BLM/WHM. I went as BST/THF this time for Treasure Hunter, while Grym stayed BST/NIN. It's a lot more dangerous running around as BST/THF. Subbing /NIN means I can avoid a few hits with shadows, and is especially handy for failed charms. We got our giant scale and headed in to the flies island. They weren't up, but we'd been in the zone at the start of the repop window and knew there wasn't anyone else around. Grym and I kept our birds from the first island, and had to keep recharming them while we waited for the flies. They spawned at the 23.5 hour mark, and we set in to kill them. With the 3 SMNs, it was a piece of cake, and lo and behold, we actually got two sallets. Hurray! I like to think my /THF made a difference, but you never know. I did try to get on the hate list of as many flies as I could, and it was my pet that first aggro'd them, so maybe it did indeed help. Yobun and Grym won the lots.

On Friday night, Grym, Elboron and I had our CoP static. It was Snoll Tzar night, which didn't go well, and it delayed us from joining the others in Riverne until the flies had already spawned. Ana and Ryrra had both logged out on the flies island, so we knew the flies were up. As the three of us were running through Misereaux Coast to get to Cape Riverne to join the others, an alliance of Japanese players showed up, including the SMN who'd been there Thursday night in his PJs. They killed all the flies and told Ana that they got no drops at all. So everyone headed off to do other things, and Grym, Elbo, Izan and I farmed a couple Giant Scales to have on hand for our next attempts.

On Saturday night, Grym and Elbo and I were going to be busy with our Ninja Blues static, but Elbo had been to a wedding and didn't make it home in time, so we cancecelled the static and Grym and I hurried out to join Yobun, Ryrra, Ana, Izan, "Erock" (WHM) and "Vynala" (SMN) in Riverne. Both Erock and Vynala have quit the game, but people are still keeping the characters around to use for special occassions. Elboron logged on as we were heading there, and joined us as well. The flies hadn't yet spawned when we all got to the island, so we waited and waited, Grym and I keeping our vultures around by leaving and recharming. There were a number of different groups in the area, and a few SMNs present. However, none of them showed up on the island while we were waiting. The flies spawned, we killed them all, and got two sallets, which went to Izan and Ryrra. After we left Riverne, I did a search, and sure enough, the Japanese alliance had returned, with more SMNs than they had had on Friday night, and two of them were SMN/THF. We don't know whether they figured out someone else had got the flies, but most of them left Riverne before the 24-hour mark from when they'd killed them the night before.

Sunday night, we did have our Ninja Blues static, but finished up an hour early, and Elbo, Grym, Wendell and I hurried out to join Yobun, Ryrra, Ana, Izan, "Erock", and "Vynala". We left Erock and Vynala logged out on the island the night before so they'd be handy. The flies spawned as we were making our way to the island, but there was no one else in the zone, and they would be ours. Once again, we killed them all, and one sallet dropped. Ana was the last one of the group looking for one, and finally got her sallet, ready for her PUP to hit 41.

It's been a very time-consuming process, but it's been really nice getting people their Voyager Sallets. We ended up getting 8 sallets from killing the flies 8 times in 9 days. It's not the best drop rate, but at least it's somewhat consistent. Another nice benefit is the good chunk of exp we've been getting with our chain #9s when we kill all 10 at once. Even on the nights we died, we still ended up with more exp than when we started. Elboron's WHM has gone from 40 to 42 in the process (that includes the 3k exp he got from the ENM last Sunday), and Yobun's SMNs leveled at least once as well. It's bad for our BSTs in that we'll probably end up hitting 51 without capping our Axe skill, but that shouldn't be a big problem.

Beastmasters: Scattered into Shadow (AF2)

Since we got to level 50 on our BSTs over the weekend, we turned our attention to our AF quests. We had been hoping we could duo most of it as BSTs, but looking over the quest walkthroughs, we decided that if we actually wanted to have our AF pieces on hand in time for us to wear it at the first level they're all equipable, we were going to have to "cheat". So on Monday, we headed to Jeuno to talk to Brutus to pick up the Scattered into Shadow quest for our level 52 Beast Gaiters. He asked us to take some items to the underground pools in the basement of Fei'Yin to help free the spirits of beasts that had been killed in the war.

We headed off to Fei'Yin as PLD75/RDM37 and THF75/NIN37, since we knew we'd be fighting a ghost that would be too difficult for our BST50 duo. We made our way to the three pools, tossing in the aquaflora in each and saying a little prayer in remembrance of the dead beasts. At the third pool, Dabotz's Ghost spawned, and we had to fight it. It wasn't a difficult fight for our 75s, but it did take several minutes for us to defeat him. Then we had a cutscene with the ghost of a Galka Beastmaster, who said he's have something for us to do for him when we met again.

We walked back to Jeuno to talk to Brutus, and he thought it was interesting that we'd seen the ghosts, and mentioned there was an Opo-opo spirit wandering in Castle Oztroja, and asked us to go see if we could help free his spirit. We found the Opo-opo, but he wouldn't acknowledge our presence. Being clairvoyant, we knew we'd find a Beast Collar for the Opo-opo in a Castle Oztroja Treasure Chest (it certainly wasn't evident from any clues within the game), so we killed the key droppers until we both had a key. We found our treasure chests relatively quickly. Beast Collars in hand, we headed back to the Opo-opo. We both gave a Collar to the Opo-opo, and he took them and left.

Back to Brutus again, and he thanked us for helping him, and gave us our first piece of Beastmaster Artifact Armor. Now to get to 52 and be able to wear them!

Quests: Promyvion ENMs

Yobun needed to get to the top floor of all three of the main Promyvions, and he recruited a squad to help him out. Since we'd be near the spire anyway, we planned to do the ENMs for each as well. We did two on Saturday, with Yobun (SMN/WHM), Kiki (WAR/MNK), Grym (WHM/BLM), Splinte (SAM/THF), and Anastasia (PUP/MNK). Promyvion-Holla was first on the list. We had to fight quite a bit on our way to the fourth floor, so it seemed to take awhile. After Yobun got his key item, we headed into the spire and did the Simulant ENM. It wasn't easy, but we won, and got 3000 exp as our reward.

Ana had to leave, but we decided to try Dem as a 4-some. The trip to the fourth floor was fast and aggro-free. We did a better job on the Memory Recepticles with me just focusing on them rather than the Strays. One thing really nice about WAR/MNK is having counter. It was nice to be fighting the Memory Recepticle and still kill Strays with a single blow of my greataxe when I countered one of their attacks. I really love WAR/MNK. If I ever get back to leveling WAR, I'd love to be able to tank as WAR/MNK. None of this WAR/NIN nonsense until at least level 48. :p Our ENM, You Are What You Eat, didn't go so well. At one point it looked like we could win, then it did something that regained 30% of its health. It was fun to try though.

Sunday evening, we tackled Mea. We had a few different people this time: Yobun (SMN/WHM), Diasuke (BLU/NIN), Lalandra (BLU/???), Elboron (WHM/BLM), Grym (RNG/WAR), Ana (PUP/MNK), and Kiki (WAR/MNK). We did some fighting along the way, some of it to try to get a memosphere for the map quest, some of it from aggro. On the final floor we made a mad dash for the spire with several of the Empty hot on our tails. Yobun headed back out to get his key item, and we headed in for the Playing Host ENM. Lalandra had missed the memo about getting the key item for the ENM, so we only had six of us in there. At one point I was down to 12 HP, but the fight went pretty well, and we won, gaining another 3000 exp, leveling my WAR to 38.

Beastmasters: Gaudy Harnesses are Go!

With another holiday weekend, it was time to take our BSTs out for some leveling. People weren't going to be around much, and our visit with the Snoll Tzar was put off for another week. We headed back to the Labyrinth of Onzozo as level 48s, and felt like it was pretty quick getting to level 49. I think the Empress Bands really help speed things along. After a safe buffer, we decided it was time to find a new camp. Since we were in the Windurst area, we thought we'd try the Horutoto end of the Toraimarai Canal. This wasn't such a good idea (we thought our aggro'ing pets were far enough from their "home" that they'd despawn). There went some of our buffer.

After homepointing to Whitegate, we decided to check out the beetles in West Altepa, since there didn't seem to be any parties out there. It looked pretty promising, until we spotted an IT+ giant bird and said "let's do it!". Unfortunately, he did us instead, and we completely lost our buffer, and dropped back to 48.

Next, we decided to see what the old coeurl vs. goblin "camp" in Yhoator at one of the zones to Ifrit's Cauldron looked like. From chocobo back, it didn't look very promising, so we left it and decided to go try Goblin Pets in Gustav Tunnel. This was the easiest exp in the game until one of the Goblin Shepards noticed Grym taking his pet away. I had my pet fight the leech, while Grym's took the goblin, and we hit /logout. Unfortunately, Grym didn't make it in time, and ended up homepointing. She made her way back to Gustav, and we killed easier things until we got her caught back up to me (I kept my pets for the exp cut).

We logged out for the night just outside Gustav, and when we logged back in the next morning, we decided to run over to Crawlers Nest and see how that would work. The "doughnut" room in the basement didn't have enough pets since there was an exp party there killing all of the soldier crawlers, so we headed up to the lizard rooms. There were no lizard farmers, and this turned out to be a really nice spot for us, and we soon hit 50. Finally, we could wear our Gaudy Harnesses that we got so very long ago. And we could start questing our fuzzy AF! Hurray!

We ended up doing the cookbook quest for last week as our BST50s. After getting our cookbook page, we decided to kill some of the skeletons, using Gazers as pets, hoping for a chest key. Unfortunately, a Stegotaur respawned on top of us as we were in the middle of swapping pets, and we decided to run away like scared babies, mostly because I was so startled by it suddenly looming over me.

Adventuring Fellows: Mirror Images

Months ago, Balu-Falu and Wagwei pleaded with us to help them save Palometa by going to Qu'Bai Arena in Fei'Yin and getting her back from the evil man who'd taken her. We finally got around to it this weekend, after getting our Beastmasters to level 50 (it's a level 50 capped burning circle fight). We headed to Qu'Bai, getting a bit of aggro on our way through Beaucidine Glacier, but nothing our friendly tiger pets couldn't handy.

Grymalkyn went first, and had a really tough fight. The strategy for Beastmasters is to use a Funguar jug pet, have the NPC set on Stalwart Shield, and pretty much stand behind the NPC while the Funguar and the NPC fight the Demon. Wagwei had 43 MP aspired from him, and didn't cast a single spell. He'd try to use Blessed Radiance, but each time complained that his magical reserves were low. Grym had to keep healing Wagwei, and had to get close enough to be able to hit the demon herself. Grym won, but it was a very close fight.

Balu-Falu and I had a much easier time. Balu-Falu countered Blighted Gloom with Blessed Radiance three times, which did a great deal of damage to the demon. He also used Cure IV on himself at least 3 times, possibly 4, so I didn't really have to cure him at all. My fight was over quickly.

Back when we chose what type of NPC we wanted, everyone claimed that the race didn't matter, and they all had the same stats, but we've learned that's really not the case. Grym's Wagwei is a Galka, and he runs out of MP so much faster than my Tarutaru Balu-Falu. Wagwei doesn't hit any harder than Balu-Falu, but he does seem to have more HP. Grym's so very disappointed in Wagwei that she's even considering starting over with a new Adventuring Fellow, despite all the time invested in leveling and upgrading and questing with Wagwei.

General: Helping Strangers on Saturdays

Work was a bit crazy last week, and my play time suffered for it, as did my blogging time. Things seem to be back to normal for now though.

For some reason, Saturdays seem to have become the day for helping strangers. This is probably a combination of there being more people playing on the weekends, and me having a bit of "unstructured" time, since Saturday's the day I tend to play the entire day.

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Early last month, Itera asked if I wanted to help a random stranger with his Asuran Fists NM in the Oubliette. I was in the middle of fishing, and said I could when I finished. They were still gathering together when I finished up with the fish, and I OP warped from Windurst to Ronfaure and joined the alliance. I was really impressed with the random stranger. He knew where to go, what to expect, what needed to be done, and just was an overall good leader.

The poor guy had apparently been trying to get people to help him for days, so it was nice to be part of the group that finally helped him kill the ghost so he could complete his quest.

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The following Saturday, I was in Jeuno for a change, since I have been wanting to get a set of pop items for the Bomb Queen and Akuma had found a Rolanberry bazaar with them. Grym had been squid fishing in Qufim, so she was there too. I saw a shout from a Japanese PLD57 who was looking for help with the PLD AF3 quest, which involves getting a key item from a coffer in Castle Zvahl Baileys and then two NM Orcs in Davoi. She was shouting for help with the CZB part.

Grym and I decided we could help her, and I sent her a tell. She didn't speak any English and I don't speak any Japanese, but we were able to use the autotranslator well enough to communicate the necessities. She already had the key, but didn't know where the coffers were. She invited us to her party and had a RDM73 helping as well (also Japanese). We had Grym teleport us to Vahzl, who would then OP warp to Windurst, change to THF/WHM and come back to help. I was PLD/RDM for sneak and invisible.

Unfortunately, while trying to come up with a polite phrase in the autotranslator, Grym got aggro'd by an eye. We tried to save her as she warped, but she ended up dead at her homepoint. So she teleported again and made it safely to Windurst to change. Meanwhile, the three of us headed to CZB. The PLD was well-stocked with prism powder and silent oils, and I started making the rounds of the 8 coffer spawn points. When Grym made it back to CZB, she started checking spots as well. We kept going from spot to spot, with no luck, and the PLD was running low on Prism Powders, but since the rest of us all had sneak and invisible, it wasn't a problem.

We met up with Grym and the RDM and Grym went one way while the PLD and I went another. The RDM ended up getting aggro and killed, so we made our way back to her, cleared out the Demons (which was pretty exciting since we had 3 or 4 on us at once), and raised the RDM. Elboron had by then made his way to CZB to help us out as well, and we invited him to join the party. Elboron and Grym were each checking different spots while the PLD, RDM and I spotted the coffer in one of the rooms.

The PLD was very happy to get her key items, and rather than try to sneak her back out, we had the RDM cast Escape for the three of us. Just as the spell was going off, I saw Elboron's HP suddenly drop to 0. Apparently an easy prey eye decided to cast Flare on him, and he'd been one-shotted. We ran back in to rescue him, leaving the PLD at the front gate. Grym got to him first and waited for me to arrive. We killed the eye (which opened with Burst, but we were able to interrupt it) and raised Elboron, then headed back to the gate and Elboron gave us a Teleport Holla so the PLD could go to San d'Oria for the next step in her quest.

She was hoping the 5 of us could go fight the NMs in Davoi, but the RDM said (Time for work!) (See you again!) and left us. I managed to get the point that we needed more people to help, and she headed to Al Zahbi to recruit others. Itera was also around, so we talked him into coming as well. We ended up with a half English-half Japanese alliance with 7 level 75s: THF, BRD, PLD, NIN, WAR, MNK, and WHM, plus the PLD57 on the quest. We cleared the area, and she spawned the NMs. The PLD Orc took awhile to kill, even with Itera using Hundred Fists on him, but we managed just fine. The RNG Orc was softer, but he also hit a lot harder, but again, we managed just fine. The PLD got her well weight, thanked everyone, and we all went our separate ways.

This is the sort of thing that makes the game so cool. People banding together to help out a stranger, regardless of language differences.

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A couple of weeks ago, I was in Al Zahbi, wondering what to do with myself that Saturday evening, when a stranger asked if I could tank Windurst Mission 9-2 for them. He was a THF75 with Rank 10 in Bastok and San d'Oria already, and was putting together a party to get his final Rank 10. It's a fun fight, so I said sure and made my way to Windurst. We ended up with PLD/WAR, WAR/NIN, WAR/NIN, THF/NIN, RDM/BLM, RDM/WHM, all Level 75, and 4 of them needing the mission. This fight went pretty smoothly, with the Cardians posing no trouble, and then Ajido-Marujido again faking us out by heading for the wyrm first, then veering off to the Manticore. I think this led to the RDM/WHM getting one-shotted by the wyrm, but I'm not really sure what happened there. One of the WAR/NINs had been kiting the wyrm while we killed the manticore, and he very nearly got killed, just as we'd finished the manticore. I used Provoke, Invincible, and Flash, and managed to pull hate off of him in time. The fight was quickly over, and Windurst had 4 new Rank 10s.

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This past Saturday's good deed for the day was simply showing a MNK55 how to get from San d'Oria to Qu'Bai Arena in Fei'Yin. I guess he needed to zone in there for a cutscene for one of his AF pieces. We were heading there ourselves for the Mirror Images quest, so it's not like we were going out of our way or anything. I did offer to take him over to get the Vahzl crystal after we finished our quest fight, but he decided to instant-warp back to Jeuno and leave the crystal for another day.